Have writer's block? Hopefully this resource will help librarians identify publishing and presentation opportunities in library & information science, as well as other related fields. I will include calls for papers, presentations, participation, reviewers, and other relevant notices that I find on the web. If you find anything to be posted, please drop me a note. thanks -- Corey Seeman, University of Michigan(cseeman@umich.edu)

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

CFP: Children's and Young Adult Literature and Culture

Any aspect of Children's or Young Adult Literature (traditional or contemporary) and/or Children's/YA popular culture issues – television, comics, films, toys, music, gender role models, fashion – will be reviewed for acceptance. Please send queries, 250 word paper proposals, and 500 word panel proposals, including full contact info for all participants for review to area chair by deadline of November 15, 2006. Please include a short (100 word) bio listing previous and current research activities, but no full CVs needed. (Please see topic ideas and two special panel requests below.)

Interdisciplinary approaches and all scholarly fields are welcome. Also, as this is a popular culture conference, presentations that depart from traditional reading of papers are highly encouraged and welcomed. Presenters also need not have a university affiliation; we embrace all forms of experiential knowledge potential presenters might offer. Graduate students are especially encouraged to submit proposals.

Please see the Conference web site for information on Graduate Student Paper Awards.

Possible topics of particular interest include (but are not limited to):

Boys' issues in Children's/Young Adult culture (books and visual media)Cultural and Multi-cultural issues in Children's and Young Adult culture (literature, tv, film, etc.)Children's Television Issues – Sesame Street, Disney Channel, other shows directed at childrenTelevision and the Young Adult Market (series aimed at 'tweens and teens)Series Book Collections Issues (in both Children and Young Adult markets)Girl/Boy Sleuth series – Nancy Drew and her girl/boy counterparts in the 21st CenturyVideo Games and Children's/Young Adult culture issuesToys and Children's culture

I'm especially interested in forming a panel or panels on cultural/multi-cultural representations (both positive and negative or problematic) in Children's and Young Adult cultural productions (literature, television, music, film, video games, toys). This includes the more traditional "cultural" representations (given our conference location) of Hispanic and Native American issues, but should also extend to African American and African, Asian, Arab and Indian, as well as religious cultures – Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and others. Are these images promoting more or less unity, do they exacerbate the divisions that seem so rampant, or are they working to bridge those chasms?

Another panel or panels I would like to form is one that looks at Boys' issues; generally, I get a majority of excellent papers dealing with girls' issues, and boys' issues get a bit of a short shrift. I'd like to see proposals dealing with issues like boys' friendships, father-son relationships, gender identification issues, "male culture" issues for boys, boy-girl friendships, traditional vs. non-traditional gender roles/expectations, the culture of violence and how it affects boys. The possibilities are endless. What's shaping our boys' understanding of what it means to be male (especially given the trend in adult marketing of the "macho" – be a "real" man stereotype and the highly sexualized marketing of women in advertising and much of regular television programming)

Any other topic related to Children's and Young Adult literature, culture, and the intersection of these items with popular culture are welcome.